As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an Information Handling System (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, global communications, etc. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
A “motherboard” is the backbone of a typical IHS. Vital IHS components (e.g., processor(s), chipset(s), firmware, I/O controllers, etc.) are directly mounted on the motherboard or coupled to it via dedicated sockets. Also, the motherboard provides connections to additional components such as memory (e.g., Random Access Memory), typically via Dual In-Line Memory Module (DIMM) slots, and/or peripheral devices (e.g., modems, network cards, television tuners, radio tuners, video cards, sound cards, etc.), typically via Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) slots.
When a peripheral device is inserted into a PCI slot, the slot is allocated a number of PCI lanes. The number of PCI lanes available to any given slot determines the speed of communications between a device inserted into that slot and the IHS's processor.
In various deployments, different processor generations and/or types may be used with a same motherboard. And certain capabilities of a motherboard may change as a function of the processor that currently populates it. For example, in some cases, the number of available PCI lanes can vary between 44 and 16 and the number of available DIMM slots can vary between 4 and 2, depending upon which processor is being used.
In light of the foregoing, the inventors hereof have determined that it can be extremely confusing and frustrating for an end-user to try to discover a configuration that maximizes performance of an IHS. For example, it would be beneficial for a user to be able to, upon request, visually determine which specific PCI slot to plug a new device into for optimal IHS performance (especially while the IHS is powered off). Moreover, in addition to processor-specific availability of PCI lanes and DIMM slots, there are often thermal, mechanical, and signal propagation benefits to choosing a given slot over another when attempting to maximize IHS performance.